London pre-open: Stocks seen lower as investors eye retail sales data

London stocks were set to open weaker on Thursday following downbeat cues from the US and Asia, as a stronger dollar hits commodity prices.

The FTSE 100 is seen starting 40 points lower than Wednesday’s close at 6,159.

“The rebound in the US dollar along with a sharp drop in the oil price prompted a sharp selloff in US markets yesterday which is likely to feed through into a lower European open this morning”, said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

On the data front, UK retail sales are at 0930 GMT. In the US, initial jobless claims and durable goods orders are at 1230 GMT while Markit’s manufacturing PMI is at 1345 GMT.

Hewson said the UK retail sales figures are expected to have slipped back after a strong January.

“It would be entirely understandable for the February numbers to disappoint given some of the recent weaker than expected economic data that we’ve seen from all sectors of the economy. The recent flooding and bad weather could well also have acted as a slight drag on sentiment.”

Next full year profit at upper end of expectations but warns on year ahead

Full year profits from Next were at the upper end of expectations but the clothing retailer warned the year ahead "may well be the toughest we have faced since 2008".

Total group sales rose by 3% to £4.1bn as growth from the Directory online and catalogue business of 8% made up for just a 1% increase from retail.

FTSE 250 engineering firm Renishaw issued a profit warning on Thursday, saying in a trading statement that revenue last year benefited from a number of large orders in the Far East, which had not been repeated to the same extent in the current year.

Renishaw’s board said it had now received information indicating it was unlikely to achieve the trading levels previously anticipated in its half-year report in January.

“We are continuing to experience underlying growth (after adjusting for the large orders) and now expect full year revenue to be in the range of £420m-£440m and a profit before tax in the range of £67m-£83m,” it said.